Online marketing is highly focused on content marketing. Content is the king and it always will be when it comes to marketing, especially online. If you think about it, though, content has always been the king – even before online marketing existed. Previously it was on TV and radio, in books, newspapers and magazines and at in-person events. It was in advertisements, in brochures, and more.
People are truly insatiable for more information. Now you just need more, and it can get quite expensive and overwhelming. But there are ways to get more bang for your content buck.
1. Know Your Audience – All marketing begins and ends with your audience. The better you can get to know them through research, interaction and engagement, the more you can create and buy content that will appeal to them.
2. Create Goals – Every single piece of content that you push out to your audience in every manner should have a purpose. It may be to spread awareness, build credibility, build your list or some other goal, but you need to know what it is before even planning it.
3. Plan in Advance – The best place to start is with the goal and the product you want to make money from. Then work your way backwards through your product funnel and marketing funnel so that you bring them in, educate them, inform them, and convert them.
4. Create a Publication Calendar – Part of planning is to have a publication calendar. You may have several calendars; one for each network, blog and goal as well as one main calendar so that you can see everything at a glance.
5. Incorporate Private Label Rights – Content is so important that you can’t really create it all yourself. You’re going to have to fill the gaps with other means such as private label rights (PLR) articles, blog posts, eBooks and information. The fastest way and least expensive way to do so is via PLR.
6. Repurpose Everything – One really good thing to learn is how to repurpose your content. A blog can become a video, a video can become a small report, and everything can be combined to make one big package or membership website.
7. Refresh Old Content – Depending on your niche it may be possible to rewrite and refresh old content, making it new again. This is especially true in technology areas where things change very fast. When a fact changes, spend time updating old content, then remarket it.
8. Interconnect Your Content – Everything needs to work together to some end. If you could look at your entire business on a map, how would it all connect? If you can’t answer that, you will have gaps in your content coverage. If you can answer it, you’ll rock and make the most of your content buck.
9. Push Visitors to Your Email Lists – The ultimate goal of content is to sell your products. But to do so you’ll need to push your visitors (whether via social media networks, websites, YouTube, or blogs) to sign up for your email lists. Once you get someone in your audience on your list, your chances of selling to them explodes over traditional marketing.
Finally, it’s important that you don’t just publish content without promoting it. Content needs to be promoted to be successful, and ironically you will use content to promote the content. That’s why content is king.